Important stuff

My 2 Cents

I’m not one of those parents who let’s technology babysit my kids all day, but I am a mom who uses technology to my advantage. I feel like time on the iPad, iPhone, and so on, can be beneficial, especially the plethora of educational apps out there.

My kids get to hang out at the toddler belt office for a few hours after school most days and while I think this is the most magical place ever, they aren’t as impressed. They get bored and I don’t blame them, so they get tech time to entertain themselves.

Here’s the thing, though, I monitor what they are watching/playing/reading. There are apps out there that look cute and innocent, but are far from it. I know my kids are a little too young for social media, but I still try to keep up with the ones out there. The most recent one that I’ve heard of is SnapChat. Spoiler alert: Keep this app away from your kids (PS: don’t google it either without safe search activated).

So, the idea was that you can take a picture, any picture, and post it and in a few seconds it magically disappears forever! So no need to be shy or worry about being embarrassed, very few people will see it. Sound too good to be true? That’s cause it is. I read an article today (courtesy of CNN) that stated the following:

“The heart of the issue is Snapchat’s assurance that customers’ messages were safe and private. Snapchat’s whole business was built on that promise.

For instance, Snapchat photos have a self-destruct timer. But recipients could get around the auto-destruct by saving an image of what was on the screen.

The company also had said it took appropriate security measures to keep the information safe. However, “disappearing” videos don’t actually vanish. They were stored, unencrypted, on phones. That meant anyone could just plug a device into a computer and play the files.

Snapchat was also quietly collecting information about its customers. The company promised it wouldn’t track users, but it surreptitiously followed an Android phone’s every move. It also uploaded entire contact lists from iPhones without letting a customer know.

So, basically, be careful and pay attention. Little ones (even not so little ones) don’t tend to have the best judgement (or common sense for that matter), that’s what us parents are for, to protect them.